October 24, 1979
Daily Variety magazine reports the film’s total worldwide gross to this point as $24 million.
November 16, 1979
First public U.K. screening of Dawn of the Dead (in censored form, cut by a BBFC in-house editor) at the 23rd London Film Festival, under the altered title of Zombies – Dawn of the Dead (or just Zombies, according to the original opening credits insert seen in British prints). Again, both George Romero and Richard Rubinstein are present.
December 1979
Famed horror author and longtime Romero admirer Stephen King puts Dawn of the Dead on top of his personal list of 1979’s best movies in a column written for the year-end double issue of Rolling Stone magazine.
February 1980
The altogether fourth submission of Dawn of the Dead to the Australian ratings board, by now trimmed down to 121 minutes, finally passes with an “R” rating.
March 7, 1980
Limited theatrical U.K. release of Zombies at selected theaters in London’s West End, with engagements gradually expanded throughout the rest of the country over the following days. National exposure also includes double bill screenings that have the film respectively paired with David Cronenberg’s The Brood (“Now Twice As Terrifying Together!”) and an obscure soft sex documentary entitled The Great British Striptease, both rated “X” as well. Zombies eventually is subjected to further censorship when it opens in Ireland, where the tagline on original U.K. posters (designed by veteran illustrator Tom Chantrell) has to be blacked out due to the Irish Catholic Church taking offense at its use of the word “hell”.
